Rome, Italy
24 March 2022
International Treaty facilitates the global exchange of beans
European citizens are collaborating with scientists in the evaluation and characterization of beans through the Citizen Science Experiment of the “INCREASE” project involving the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture and other partner organizations.
“This project is an effective way of bringing citizens closer to concepts such as biodiversity and conservation of plant genetic resources,” said Kent Nnadozie, Secretary of the International Treaty. “It provides for direct citizen participation and, in doing so, provides a meaningful way to raise awareness about the importance of conserving and sustainably using the world’s crop diversity for the benefit of all, which are key principles of the International Treaty.”
The participation of ordinary citizens in the INCREASE project, which is funded through the European Union's “Horizon 2020” programme, is part of the Citizen Science Experiment (CSE) initiative. Thanks to the CSE, citizens from all walks of life and located in different countries in Europe participate by cultivating different varieties of beans, a crop listed in Annex I of the International Treaty, and share the results of their observations through a mobile application developed for the purpose.
The experiment follows a decentralized approach to seed conservation, multiplication and sharing. Interested citizens cultivate the seeds received through the project in their fields, gardens, terraces and balconies and share information about their performance.
The mobile application supporting the CSE presents traits organized in submenus: emergence, plant growth, flowering, pod ripening, harvesting, post-harvest (pods), post-harvest (seeds). Additionally, using the CSE app, the participants will be able to exchange seeds among themselves.
During the first CSE round in 2021, 2 600 citizens completed the entire process and shared photos, measurements, and recipes. The second round will involve approximately 4 000 citizens, many of whom are located in Italy, Germany and Spain.
Extended collaboration
The Secretariat of the International Treaty is one of the 28 project members, including universities, national research centers and private companies from all over Europe. The INCREASE project also has partners in the Americas and India. All members of the project support the principles of the International Treaty for the fair and equitable sharing of plant genetic materials and their associated information.
As beans are one of the crops included in the Annex I of the International Treaty, the participants can benefit from the multilateral legal arrangements in place to exchange them. Since 2007, the Treaty has facilitated the exchange of more than 130 000 samples of beans for research and plant breeding through more than 5000 standard contracts issued worldwide.
Two mechanisms of the International Treaty have been adopted and integrated into the project: (1) Easy-SMTA, an online system that facilitates the legal exchange of plant material for food and agriculture with the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) for research purposes; and (2) The Global Information System, through which users assign Digital Object Identifiers to their materials. Together, the International Treaty systems facilitate the sharing of the observations and the connection and comparison of the results of the INCREASE project.
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